Jayson Poppinga, head football coach at O'Gorman, holds up a game plan drawn by his daughter for his team's game against No.1 Washington on Saturday. Coaches, boosters and local politicians gathered Wednesday for the friendly President's Bowl luncheon before the schools meet Saturday at Howard Wood Field. (Photo: Sam Caravana / Argus Leader)Buy Photo

O’GORMAN

If O’Gorman beats Washington, at least some of the credit has to go to coach Jayson Poppinga’s daughter.

“My daughter drew how to beat Washington on this piece of paper,” he said, proudly holding up a piece of paper he’d brought with him to the podium. “So if you want to take a snapshot of this, this is how it’s going to get done, according to my daughter.”

Pulling the upset Saturday night will require nearly everything to go right for O’Gorman and more than a few things to go wrong for the Warriors.

Last weekend, the Knights fought back from an early deficit to take down No. 1 (11AA) Harrisburg 35-26 in the Dakota Bowl.

In that game, quarterback Isaac Struck threw for a school record 360 yards and accounted for four total touchdowns. Wide receiver Canyon Bauer caught three of those passes for 175 yards.

“We felt like we played well in the second half and know that we have to play even better this week to stay in there with Washington,” Poppinga said, adding jokingly that his daughter may be the only one who believes the Knights will win Saturday night.

O’Gorman is a young team, but it does have some athleticism, most notably Bauer, who will play a large role in determining how successful the Knights are offensively Saturday night.

WASHINGTON

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Chad Stadem, head football coach at No. 1 Washington, talks about his team's matchup against O'Gorman on Saturday. Coaches, boosters and local politicians gathered Wednesday for the friendly President's Bowl luncheon before the schools meet Saturday at Howard Wood Field. (Photo: Sam Caravana / Argus Leader)

The lopsided outcomes aside, the first two weeks of the season have allowed Washington to demonstrate why it is such a dangerous squad.

When Brandon Valley keyed in on Tupak Kpeayeh and the ground game in the opener, the Warriors took to the air, with quarterback Jayden Johannsen completing 7 of 11 passes for 227 yards and four touchdowns.

A week later against Roosevelt, coach Chad Stadem wanted to get the ground game going a bit.

So they did, running the ball 39 times for 225 yards (Kpeayeh accounted for 184 of them).

The defense limited tailback Braiden Petersen’s productivity in Week 1, then shutout Roosevelt’s offense (the Riders’ lone touchdown came on a pick-six late in the third quarter).

“We feel like we’re starting to get going in the right direction,” Stadem said. “We’re playing well.”

After O’Gorman, the schedule should lighten up significantly for Washington, which has Mitchell (11AA) in Week 3, followed by a string of 1-1 teams, including Brookings (11AA) to close out the month of September.

LINCOLN

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Jared Fredenburg, head football coach at Lincoln, cracks a joke while talking about his team's game against Roosevelt on Saturday. Coaches, boosters and local politicians gathered Wednesday for the friendly President's Bowl luncheon before the schools meet Saturday at Howard Wood Field. (Photo: Sam Caravana / Argus Leader)

The Patriots are just excited to be facing an opponent that isn’t hellbent on running the ball.

“It’ll be good for us because we’re not very big defensively,” coach Jared Fredenburg said. “I think our skill positions are probably our strength. If we can get into a passing game, I think that’s where our strength is. But watch Roosevelt come out and pound the ball.”

After opening against Rapid City Central and its new run-first offense, the Pats surrendered 270 yards to Brandon Valley back Braiden Petersen.

That game couldn’t have gotten off to much of a worse start for the visitors, who fell behind 20-0 after the first quarter and trailed 23-3 at halftime.

But when faced with a situation that last year likely would have ended in a blowout, the Patriots hunkered down and mounted a comeback, pulling to within seven at 31-24 with 3:51 left in the fourth.

“I’m most proud of the way we battled back. We never folded our tent,” Fredenburg said. “They just need to realize they’re good enough. It really doesn’t matter who we’re playing if we can play up to our potential. We just have to eliminate mistakes.”

The mistakes that loomed largest against the Lynx were the dropped passes. Quarterback Preston Eisenbraun’s accuracy was much improved from the opener, but his receivers let him down on quite a few plays, which led to the visitors falling into an early hole.

ROOSEVELT

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Kim Nelson, head football coach at Roosevelt, speaks about his team's game against Lincoln on Saturday. Coaches, boosters and local politicians gathered Wednesday for the friendly President's Bowl luncheon before the schools meet Saturday at Howard Wood Field. (Photo: Sam Caravana / Argus Leader)

After beating up on Rapid City Stevens, the Rough Riders took their licks against a very good Washington team.

So, it’s kind of hard to say where this bunch actually is heading into the third weekend of the regular season.

“I wish I could just say we didn’t play well,” coach Kim Nelson said. “I can’t tell if we didn’t play well. They’re so good… It’s hard to analyze how we played. Sometimes our guys were in the right positions or were doing the right things and they just got overpowered by a bigger, stronger guy.”

One thing worth keeping an eye on is how senior Carter Lohr is utilized by the Rough Riders.

Lohr, who plays both quarterback and safety, is battling a sports hernia injury, which will eventually require surgery (he opted to wait until after football season, and may try to wrestle through it, too). As a result, Nelson will be trying to keep Lohr to one side of the ball. With sophomore Brady Dannenbring already platooning with Lohr at quarterback, we could be seeing a heavy dose of Lohr on defense.

“He’s played through it,” Nelson said. “He doesn’t practice that much. He lets it cool down during the week, plays on it Friday or Saturday night, and then he has to let it recover.”

This week’s game against Lincoln will be the first time Nelson has faced Fredenburg, his former defensive coordinator, but we’ll have more on that in this week’s Argus All-Access.